Nostalgia & History > C&NW Coal Power

SD60 #8054 is busy hauling coal eastward on the barren wind swept plains of Wyoming under threatening skies in the middle of nowhere on 10-12-87.


Though purchased by the C&NW to replace the SD60's in coal service, this quartet of Dash 8's (8527-8538-8517-8549) have wandered into manifest service on the east-west route. The lead unit today is fresh from the paint booth trading it's Zito yellow for a new coat of traditional yellow. The GE's have eastward train DMPRA well in hand at Frog Pond crossing east of Clinton, Ia. (now the site of a crossover interlocking by the same name) on 4-08-92.

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What is Zito yellow? Like Greinstien green, named after somebody? How many yellows did CNW have?
Paul

Go to http://utahrails.net/cnw/cnw-roster-notes.php and scroll down to "LOCOMOTIVE PAINT, LOGOTYPES AND STRIPING" for Don Strack's explanation of CNW paint colors. Basically, CNW used a deep yellow called "stagecoach yellow" for most of its existence. It went to the lighter yellow color in the early 80's at the direction of Senior VP-operations Jim Zito, hence the nickname. This already pale color had a tendency to fade even more, and CNW went back to "stagecoach yellow" (or "old yellow," as folks came to call it) in the early 90's. The 8527 is wearing a new application of "old yellow," while the Dash 8 behind it is in "Zito yellow."

CNW8531 Wrote:
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> Though purchased by the C&NW to replace the SD60's
> in coal service, this quartet of Dash 8's
> (8527-8538-8517-8549) have wandered into manifest
> service on the east-west route. The lead unit
> today is fresh from the paint booth trading it's
> Zito yellow for a new coat of traditional yellow.
> The GE's have eastward train DMPRA well in hand at
> Frog Pond crossing east of Clinton, Ia. (now the
> site of a crossover interlocking by the same name)
> on 4-08-92.

The GE Dash 8s were maintained in the early 1990s by Marshalltown (IA) shop after the Council Bluffs shop was closed. CNW did not like to stop coal trains (or empties) at Marshalltown to deliver or pull GE units from Marshalltown shop, so the GEs were typically ferried as working power from Proviso to Marshalltown for shopping on the PRDMA and returned on the DMPRA. When the Dash 9s were delivered starting at Thanksgiving 1993, Marshalltown shop was heavily into GE maintenance. Ironically, the CNW reopened Council Bluffs shop on Monday, March 13, 1995, three days afteer the UP-CNW merger was announced, because the GE fleet had grown to the point where Marshalltown couldn't handle the fleet (77 Dash 8s + 130 Dash 9s + 35 C44ACs which were arriving in November-December 1995).

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Go to
> http://utahrails.net/cnw/cnw-roster-notes.php and
> scroll down to "LOCOMOTIVE PAINT, LOGOTYPES AND
> STRIPING" for Don Strack's explanation of CNW
> paint colors. Basically, CNW used a deep yellow
> called "stagecoach yellow" for most of its
> existence. It went to the lighter yellow color in
> the early 80's at the direction of Senior
> VP-operations Jim Zito, hence the nickname. This
> already pale color had a tendency to fade even
> more, and CNW went back to "stagecoach yellow" (or
> "old yellow," as folks came to call it) in the
> early 90's. The 8527 is wearing a new application
> of "old yellow," while the Dash 8 behind it is in
> "Zito yellow."

The technically-correct name for the yellow hue commonly called "Zito yellow" is "Pantone 102C", from the Pantone color line used by commercial artists. As for the fading, it wasn't so much the color itself as the pigment. The first 42 GE C40-8s, for example, started fading quickly after a year of coal service running out of South Morrill into the Powder River basin (all relatively high-altitude, above 3500 feet above sea level). At that altitude, the ultraviolet light from the sunlight quickly oxidized the yellow pigments (which were all synthetic or chemically-blended pigments). When GE paid to have those units repainted in stagecoach yellow at Mid-America Car in 1992, GE purchased the richer color paint but also had organic pigment (much more expensive and resistant to UV light) used.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CNW went back to "stagecoach yellow" (or
> "old yellow," as folks came to call it) in the
> early 90's. The 8527 is wearing a new application
> of "old yellow," while the Dash 8 behind it is in
> "Zito yellow."

Stagecoach yellow was referred to as "Traditional Yellow" after its comeback. I'm sure some folks used 'old yellow', but Traditional was the actual name and it's the name I hear most often. Similarly, 'Zito' was also referred to as 'Safety Yellow' unofficially. It's all just a matter of who you talk to.

-Justin